The young farmers who are members of the Segemiat Beekeeping Group in Kenya’s Kericho District are optimistic that their activities can generate enough income to support all 20 members, and their families.
One of a total of 43 such groups to have been established by the Beekeeping Outreach Programme which is operated with the support of Self Help Africa out of Baraka Agricultural College, the Segemiat group members currently have a total of 95 occupied beehives, and is aiming to more than double that number in the coming year.
The group constructed its first bee house – a secure hut structure which can accommodate more than 20 hives, provides shade, and keeps the bees safe from predators and disturbance. It is a technology which group members picked up on courses they have attended at both Baraka and at the college’s demonstration apiary in Lare.
‘In the first harvest I got 15 kg of honey from two of my hives, but in the second I was able to collect 22kg of honey from one hive’, says group member Humphrey Langat.
He says that they sell their honey at present to Baraka College for 80 Kenyan shillings per kg, but that there are other local markets also available for the produce.‘In time I hope to have 25 hives of my own, but at present I have 10 which are occupied, and am building others’, he adds.
Although more famous for it’s tea plantations, Kericho is an area ideally suited to beekeeping, says Baraka’s extension co-ordinator Cornelius Kasisi, who is currently working with six groups in the locality (approx 120 people), and has many others interested in becoming involved.
‘The potential in this area is enormous’, he says, ‘and one of the big limitations just now is in our ability to provide the necessary training and information for the people who have expressed an interest’.
In order to address this problem, they have embarked on a training programme to develop a local farmer to farmer advisory service.
‘Members of the different groups that we work with are already coming to training courses at Baraka College and going back and showing the techniques they have learned to the other members of their groups. With this new initiative they will have the knowledge and the skills to go and train other groups who are interested in starting their own beekeeping activities’, Cornelius Kasisi says.
Most of the members of the Segemiat Beekeeping Group are small holding farmers engaged in subsistence farming on plots of under five acres, but several are committed to engaging exclusively in beekeeping as a source of family income.
Father of two Johnston Chreruoyot is one such member, having decided to devote his time exclusively to beekeeping since receiving training from the outreach programme.
‘I have 10 hives occupied at present, but with the skills I learned on an artisan course at Baraka I have a further seven which are waiting to attract swarms. When my hives are all occupied I believe that it can provide a good livelihood for myself and for my family’, he said.
In order to ensure that they are doing everything to make the venture successful, the Segemiat Group members have also developed a tree nursery in the vicinity, and are selling saplings to local farmers across the district. |
Self Help Africa in Kenya |
Self Help Africa began working in Kenya in the late 1990's - initially in partnership with the Franciscan Brothers at Baraka Agricultural College, and in more recent years as a seperate, independent agency.
The organisation continues to work closely with Baraka College on a Beekeeping Extension Programme and other activities, while it has also established it's own area based development programmes in the Rift Valley Province. |
